Over the past years, standing desk has been gaining popularity as an alternative way of working in the office. The average workday for Americans is eight hours, and most this time, for white-collar office workers are spent sitting down. Despite the gain in popularity, there are lots of standing desk accessories on the market to greatly enhance the stand-up work experience.
Anti-Fatigue Mats
Anti-Fatigue Mats are a very good accessory to make the desk standing experience more enjoyable and healthy. When standing for prolonged periods of time, fatigue can set in making it much harder to reap the benefits of standing more.
Spending many hours in a standing position causes your muscles to become more restricted. This restriction in the muscles requires your heart to work harder to circulate blood, often resulting in discomfort fatigue and sometimes pain. The pain sometimes experienced as a result of blood pooling in the legs. An anti-fatigue mat is designed to encourage slight movements in the legs, and calf muscle areas.
The ergonomic design of anti-Fatigue mats encourages movement, which causes the muscles in the legs to contract and expand, to adjust to the surface of the mat. These extra movements cause more blood flow back up to the heart, increases blood flow to the legs and feet while reducing overall fatigue because the heart doesn’t have to work as hard.
Sky Mats Anti-Fatigue Mat
- Easily portable and extra soft design.
- Non-slip base to provide safety while working.
- Eco-friendly materials are used.
- Easy to clean.
Monitor Arms
Monitor’s arms are another accessory that can greatly enhance your standing desk experience. Monitor arms typical come in single, dual, tri, and quad options. Typical single or dual arms are utilized for a single person’s standing desk. Monitor’s arms give you the freedom to adjust your monitor screen in a variety of positions. In traditional desk, monitor screens are often to close and generally not in ergonomically optimal position.
The sitting coupled with the poor screen position leads to increase the risk of MSD (musculoskeletal disorders). Monitor’s arms allow you to attach LCD flat screens and adjust the tilt, height, and angle to fit the comfort level you may be experiencing that day. Besides the obvious hardware related physical benefits of monitor arms, they allow you to change the landscape and position of the screen and switch from one to two monitor views.
The arms also allow you to have a nice size screen without taking up additional space on your desk.
VIVO Single Monitor Arm
- Fits for screens from 13″ to 27″ perfectly.
- Easy to set using a solid C-clamp.
- Tilt, swivel, and rotation options are fully adjustable.
- It goes with detachable cable clips for better cable management.
Adjustable Stools
Adjustable stools allow you to have more options to meet your comfort needs. The whole idea behind the health benefits of having a standing desk is to promote more mobility while working. They allow you to adjust the height of the stool throughout the day by lowering or raising the height.
The mobility and flexibility they give can greatly improve your overall health. Typically standing burns more calories, but they still yield most of the health benefits of using a standing desk.
Boss Office Adjustable Stool
- Contoured design to fix your posture.
- It goes with a 20″ chrome foot ring.
- The back and seat are covered with breathable fabric material.
- Pneumatic gas lift design to adjust the height.
Active Learning Stools
With the popularity of standing desk increasing, so has the variety of active learning stools. The active learning stools are typically more dynamic in ergonomic design than adjustable stools. The active learning stools promote the use of more of the leg muscles, which helps the respiratory system, air, and blood flow to the brain and heart.
Some of the active learning stool is designed with an uneven base. The uneven base on them promotes movement in all directions will sitting.
The active learning stools strongly encourage the ability to easily switch from sitting to standing throughout the workday.
Seville Classics Active Desk Stool
- Adjustable up to 28″ height.
- Airlift lever design to switch sit-to-stand super quickly.
- It also 10° swivels and 360° rotates.
- Padded foam seat carries up to 250lbs.
Mini Elliptical Trainer
Mini Elliptical Trainers are portable aerobic and an alternative to treadmill standing desk. These machines are a great way to increase the blood flow back to the heart, improving blood pressure and overall health. Like the anti-fatigue mats, active learning stools, and adjustable stools, the intent behind using the mini elliptical trainer is to promote more movement during the workday.
As an accessory to the standing desk, it allows the freedom to get some good fat burning during the workday. Some of these machines have displays to track the calories burned, distance and time. They also allow the user to adjust the amount of tension or resistance to intensify or maximize the calorie burning during usage. Typically using mini elliptical trainers can burn as much as 300 calories each hour while sitting.
It is important to understand that you need to find out what the pedal rotation is. The pedal rotation height is the height at which your legs raised when using the mini trainer. If you are typically a tall person, the pedal rotation height is something you should consider before deciding to invest in one.
Stamina Inmotion Elliptical
- Super lightweight and easily portable design.
- It works quietly so you won’t annoy your colleagues.
- A monitor manages your results – time, calories, stride count.
- Forward and reverse pedal options at sit or stand positions.
Standing Desk Treadmill
The treadmill as an accessory for the standing desk is really a high- calorie burning option to consider. The standing treadmill is just what its name suggests. The design is to allow you work will using a treadmill. As discussed, moving more during the work week is optimal to promote good health.
A recent scientific study revealed the utilization of a treadmill for only 2 – 3 hours resulted in about 100 calories burned, which is about 44 – 66 pounds each year. When incorporating a treadmill as part of your standing desks experience, it is recommended not to start out trying to run the first few times you use it. Instead, it is recommended you have long but slow walk, averaging about 1 mile per hour.
The treadmill standing desk is one of the most effective ways to reap the benefits of using a standing desk. The standing treadmill is a great way to get some cardio in during your workday. When using the treadmill it is best not use it in dress shoes or high heels, but good running shoes to avoid possible injury.
LifeSpan TR1200-DT3 Under Desk Treadmill
- Non-slip portable design.
- It goes with a digital multifunctional console.
- The motor is quite silent.
- Weight capacity is up to 350lbs.
Power Strip/Hub Systems
Power strips/hub systems are in my opinion a necessity regarding standing desk. Most power hub systems come equipped with a clamp or mounting node to attach to the standing desk. While some hubs are designed to be installed under the desk. These hub systems eliminate the need to pull power cords to your standing desk and have many unsightly cords running to your standing desk.
The hubs have taken all the different power cords and grouped them together turning multiple cords into one. Many of these power hubs come with an integrated option allowing them to seamlessly blend with the desk.
Many of the power strip hub systems include USB ports, power outlets VGA ports, HDMI ports, Cat 5, Cat 5e, 63 and RJ45 jacks, many of these hubs also have wireless phone charging capabilities as well.
Echogear Desk Power Station
- Powers up to 9 devices at once.
- It goes with 6 AC outlets, 2 standard USB ports, and 1 USB-C port.
- Rubber feet design to protect your desk.
- Manual on/off switch.
Adjustable Footrests
Working from a standing desk for eight-plus hours daily can put lots of pressure on your feet, legs and other lower body joints. Adjustable Footrests can potentially be a great accessory for a standing desk. The footrest can be quite effective at alleviating pressure off your feet. They are ergonomically designed to make your desk standing experience more comforting and effective overall. They can be stationary or dynamic. The dynamic or non-stationary footrests can greatly enhance the blood circulation and fight fatigue.
Having a natural rocking motion, these footrests allow for more movement, which can be quite effective to fight fatigue. The footrest can also act as a nice feature for shorter workers by allowing them to sit a little higher and be able to truly reap the benefits of a good ergonomic standing desk.
Adjustable footrest really gives you an added bit of comfort and satisfaction. Many footrests have various angles to fit the different needs and heights of people.
Mind Reader Adjustable Foot Rest
- Foot massage surface for better blood circulation.
- Super lightweight and portable wheel design.
- Adjustable height for better comfort.
- It goes with several tilt angles.
LED Desk Lamp
LED lamps can greatly enhance the effectiveness and comfort level when using a standing desk. Most of these lamps come equipped with a clamp to give more flexibility and options on the installation placement installation location on the desk. Some LED desk lamps come with adjustable light levels, which gives you the option to adjust the lighting according to the lighting needs.
LED lights typically don’t flicker like traditional light bulbs, and the light emitted is much soft and easier in the eyes. They are also typically more energy efficient. Since they are more efficient they an office favorite that saves hundreds annually compared to traditional desk light bulbs.
TaoTronics LED Desk Lamp
Ergonomic Chairs
Ergonomic chairs are designed to decrease injuries and reduce health-related ailments. Sitting obviously does require less physical effort than standing. While sitting is not as demanding it still puts lots of pressure on the lumbosacral area of the spine.
Ergonomic chairs have the ability to be adjusted to fit the needs and customized to meet the unique comfort levels desired. Many ergonomically designed chairs give you the capability to not only adjust the arms of the chair, the height, but also the angle at which you are positioned. These added customizable capabilities is a large reason these chairs are so effective.
Ergonomically optimally designed chairs usually are manufactured with much more cushioning. This added cushioning is to focus on the comfort associated with the lower back and buttock areas. Many of the chairs have a larger than “normal” seating area. Having a larger than normal seating area allows for different positions and movement that is available with traditional chairs. These chairs are also made with extra cushioning on the edge of the seating area.
The extra cushioning at the edge, behind the knees giving them added support and comfort. In the long run, an ergonomic chair will have a great return on the initial investment, by drastically increasing your overall productivity and the sheer durability of the chair.
GTRACING Gaming Chair Ergonomic Racing Chair
- Spacious soft PU-leather seat design.
- Solid metal frame base.
- The armrest and seat height are fully adjustable.
- It goes with lumbar and headrest pillows.
Adjustable Keyboard Platforms
Adjustable keyboard platforms are a great way to add the last finishing touches on a truly optimal ergonomically designed workplace or home office standing desk. The keyboard platforms are adjustable, so you can modify it to your current comfortable height and positioning.
Adjustable keyboard platforms come equipped with an area for the mouse. The padded mouse area often has memory foam that can react to body heat and pressure to create an optimal level of comfort. Many of the adjustable platforms can be mounted on the bottom of the standing desk or attached directly to the top.
Overall they provide wrist support, which can reduce the chance of getting carpal tunnel. They allow you to tilt the keyboard in a negative position. The negative positioning is actually a more natural position for our wrist.
Cartmay Adjustable Keyboard Tray
- Highly adjustable height and incline angle options.
- Spacious design to keep all your devices.
- Installation is super fast and easy.
- It goes with a gel wrist rest for a keyboard and a mouse.
Summary
The standing desk has been proving to drastically improve the workplace environment and experience for the users who spend lots of time in front of a computer screen. By supporting more mobility during the workday, which results in more calories burned, standing desk will only continue to gain popularity. By including all or some the mentioned accessories to enhance the standing desk experience can prove to be beneficial and drastically reduce the cost of health-related office ailments scientifically linked to prolonging sitting.